Sunday, November 14, 2010

How do you open an Access DB for editing when the database window is protected and menus are disabled?

I have an Access application written by a former employee. I want to edit the underlying VBA code but the database window is not shown on startup and all menus have been changed. It seems some other shortcuts in the program itselft may have also been disabled. I had a friend once that had a trick to opening a database and bypass the protection with a keyboard/mouse shortcut at the icon in Windows but I do not remember it. Does anyone know how I can get inside this application and do what I need done?How do you open an Access DB for editing when the database window is protected and menus are disabled?hold the shift key down as you open it. also is it an MDB file or an MDE file? if its mde the VB code is compiled or encrypted and you still can't edit it.How do you open an Access DB for editing when the database window is protected and menus are disabled?One additional note to the holding Shift key down when opening the database.

If the database has any user group permissions setup on the database you may still have an issue because if that person made the groups you would have to strip out the user/group persmissions. There is a lot of work involved around this so just one extra thing to think about when opening the database.